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How To Master 3D Touch In iOS 9 (Or Disable It Completely)

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Wondering why you should care about 3D Touch on your new iPhone 6s? Have you tried to make it work and been unsuccessful? Or are you just looking for a way to disable it completely? I've got the answers you're looking for.

The easiest way to describe 3D Touch is that it's right-clicking, but for iOS. Pressing harder on an icon on the home screen for a 3D Touch-enabled app will give you Quick Actions appropriate for that app.

Selecting one of these common tasks lets you skip right to the appropriate screen in the app (which I find infinitely useful for Twitter...I can't tell you how times I've gotten distracted on my way to post an update and then forgotten what I was going to say).

Want to get it done fast? Use a Quick Action! (photo by Anthony Karcz)

You can also Peek at content within an app to preview it. If enabled for that particular app, like Mail in the example below, you can swipe upwards while Peeking to get additional Quick Actions.

Pressing harder while you're Peeking at content will take you into the content itself. Apple calls this "Pop."

But what if you're pressing as hard as you can and can't seem to get 3D Touch to do what you want? Or maybe you're barely touching things, and inadvertently launching Quick Actions or blowing right through Peek and straight into Pop? Thankfully, iOS 9 has a handy sensitivity setting. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > 3D Touch.

Once you're there, you can adjust the slider to make 3D Touch more or less sensitive. You can test the settings on the picture provided in the tool. And if you're tired of your icons doing random things when you press harder on them? Or maybe you've decided 3D Touch is getting in the way of your productivity? Well, there's a setting for that too. Just slide 3D Touch to Off and luxuriate in your newly-flattened screen.

Firm, Medium, Light or Off? (photo by Anthony Karcz)

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